Lost in La Mancha

Released 2003
Stars Terry Gilliam, Jean Rochefort, Bernard Bouix, Rene Cleitman, Johnny Depp, Benjamin Fernandez, Toni Grisoni, Vanessa Paradis, Philip A. Patterson
Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe

"Lost in La Mancha," which started life as one of those documentaries you get free on a DVD, ended as the record of swift and devastating disaster. Gilliam, the director of such films as "Brazil," "12 Monkeys" and "The Fisher King," arrived in Spain in August 2000 to begin filming a project he had been preparing for 10 years. "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" would star Johnny Depp as a modern-day hero who is transported back in time, and finds himself acting as Sancho Panza to old Don Quixote, who tilts at windmills and remains the most bravely romantic figure in Western literature.

Midway through the second week of the shooting schedule, with brutal swiftness, "The Man Who Killed Quixote" is shut down. Some films end with a whimper; this one banged into a stone wall. The camera often rests on Gilliam's face, as the enormity of the disaster sinks in. "The movie already exists in here," he says, tapping his head. "I have visualized it so many times..." But that is the only place it will ever exist.

Summary from Roger Ebert

And we thought there were problems with Stolen Summer... Terry Gilliam is one of my favorite directors, and it's brutal to watch him go through this torture with his pet project. Someone on the set mentions you couldn't write a script for a disaster like this, and he was right. It would have to be a farce, because it would seem so far over the top. They have all sorts of problems during preproduction, but they're nothing compared to what happens on the set. They have one calamity after another until the entire movie is finally washed away. I guess we can only hope they raise enough money and interest from this DVD to buy the script back from the insurance company, and this time I hope Terry finds a healthier Don Quixote. --Bill Alward, July 17, 2003